Category: Catholic

Hofstadter’s Goedel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid and The Glass Bead Game

1. Goedel Escher Bach: The Glass Bead Game as an Epistemic Mirror

Read alongside Douglas Hofstadter’s Goedel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979), and against the longer historical transition from Aristotelian scholasticism toward modern empirical and mathematical science, Hesse’s Castalia can be interpreted as an epistemological experiment: what happens when an intellectual culture succeeds in constructing an extraordinarily sophisticated system of knowledge, but regressively destroys the contact with the reality from which knowledge derives?

Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel, 1943) stands as one of the great literary monuments to the twentieth-century crisis of intellect, culture, and meaning. Although superficially presented as a vision of a highly cultivated future society, the novel constructs a dense network of philosophical and epistemological tensions, drawing upon Platonic and Hegelian traditions, Jungian ideas of psychic development, Eastern spiritual thought, and the structural problems of formal systems

From this perspective, Josef Knecht’s development is not merely a personal spiritual awakening. It is a movement from a closed intellectual order toward an open epistemology—one capable of confronting uncertainty, contradiction, experience, and the demands of a world that cannot be contained within the system.

2. The Aristotelian Trap and the Galilean Rupture

The structural crisis of Castalia is rooted in a profound intellectual paradox. The founders of Castalia, horrified by the cultural fragmentation of the “Feuilletonistic Age” and the catastrophic political and military conflicts surrounding it, seek refuge in an autonomous intellectual order. Castalia becomes a quasi-monastic community governed by an almost Platonic of superior leadership and Aristotelian deductive reasoning. Within it, music, mathematics, philosophy, history, and other forms of knowledge are synthesized through the Glass Bead Game into an extraordinarily refined symbolic language.

The danger of such an institution is not that its knowledge is false. On the contrary, much of it is profoundly true and intellectually sophisticated. The danger is that the system becomes increasingly closed: it derives its legitimacy from the coherence and refinement of its own intellectual structures rather than from continuing confrontation with an external reality.

This recalls, at a much greater historical distance, one of the central problems associated with the Aristotelian tradition.

2.1. The Aristotelian Problem

Aristotle built a magnificent, highly rigorous deductive framework based on rules of logic. He was deeply invested in looking at the physical world—meaning he was far from a pure mystic or a purely abstract theorist—but his method completely lacked statistical, skeptical, and experimental rigor of modern induction. His biological writings, in particular, demonstrate an extensive engagement with the natural world.

However, what Aristotle called “induction” (epagōgē) was fundamentally different from modern scientific induction. Observations were used to move from particular phenomena toward general categorical principles; once established, these principles became the premises from which further conclusions could be deductively derived. Polemically put, observations were elevated, behind a veil of categorical reasoning, into quasi-a priori principles and subsequently treated as such in deduction. The historical problem emerged even more strongly in the subsequent scholastic tradition, when Aristotelian categories and established authorities could become sufficiently entrenched that anomalous observations were interpreted through the inherited conceptual framework rather than being allowed to challenge it.

This helps explain why Aristotelian natural philosophy could remain so often wrong for so long: once categorical principles acquired quasi-a priori authority, contradictory observations could be dismissed rather than used to revise the system. The resulting intellectual closure became a major obstacle to the emergence of modern empirical science for roughly a millennium.The problem, therefore, was not deduction as such. Deductive reasoning is one aspect which is indispensable to science. The problem was the possibility of a closed epistemic hierarchy, in which authoritative principles and categories possessed greater epistemic weight than recalcitrant observation.

2.2. The Galilean Rupture at Padova

This makes Galileo Galileo’s years at the University of Padova particularly illuminating. From 1592 to 1610, Galileo worked in an intellectual environment in which Aristotelian natural philosophy remained deeply influential. His later telescopic observations—particularly those of the Moon, Jupiter’s satellites, the phases of Venus, and the changing appearance of the heavens—did not simply add new facts to an existing system. They placed pressure on the conceptual framework within which those facts were interpreted.

The significance of the Galilean transformation therefore lies not in the simplistic replacement of “deduction” by “induction.” Galileo combined mathematical deduction, observation, experiment, and idealization. The deeper transformation was epistemological: theoretical structures became answerable to observation.

This is precisely the distinction that illuminates Castalia.

2.3. Castalia as a Closed Formal System

The mature Glass Bead Game increasingly resembles an intellectual system that operates upon its own accumulated representations. It does not primarily discover new truths through confrontation with an unpredictable external world. Instead, it establishes increasingly sophisticated relationships among established truths, symbols, cultural achievements, and historical forms after incorporated into its conceptualGlass Bead Game.

Castalia thus becomes less a laboratory of knowledge than a museum of knowledge.

Its extraordinary refinement is simultaneously its weakness. The more completely the world is translated into the language of the Game, the less capable the system becomes of recognizing what cannot be translated into it.

Knecht gradually recognizes this contradiction. The problem is not that Castalia knows too little.It does not generate new knowledge an in return Castalia has become epistemically self-sufficient and sterile.

In Douglas Hofstadter’s Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, a closed formal system is a rigid, self-contained game played with meaningless symbols according to explicit, unchanging rules. It has a fixed set of starting strings (axioms) and transformation rules, relying on no outside meaning or external input to generate its valid outputs (theorems):

Symbols: A finite, restricted set of basic symbols allowed in the system,
Axioms: The initial “seed” strings provided for free inside the system without needing proof.
Rules of Production: Exact, mechanical instructions or rules on how to change existing strings into new, valid strings.
Theorems: Any string that can be generated by starting from an axiom and applying the rules step-by-step.

Hofstadter introduces formal systems using simple toys like the MIU-system (the MU-puzzle) to show how syntax operates independently of semantics..

The Limits of Closure: Gödel’s Blow

A central theme of the book is what happens when a closed formal system becomes powerful enough to talk about basic arithmetic (such as Hofstadter’s Typographical Number Theory, or TNT).

When a system becomes complex enough to “look at itself,” it can construct self-referential statements.
Goedel shows that any consistent, closed formal system strong enough to handle number theory is incomplete—meaning statements about the system that can never be proven from within its own closed set of rules.
To resolve or express these truths, a thinker must “jump out of the system” to a higher meta-level, shattering the absolute closure of the original framework

3. The Logic of Systems: Gödelian Incompleteness versus Inductive and Probabilistic Adaptation

Hofstadter provides a remarkably suggestive modern vocabulary for understanding this problem. Gödel, Escher, Bach places self-reference, formal systems, recursion, and the limits of formal reasoning at the center of its exploration of intelligence and meaning.

The connection with Hesse should not be understood as a literal application of Gödel’s theorem to Castalia. Castalia is obviously not a formal mathematical system in Gödel’s sense. The value of the comparison is structural: both raise the question of what happens when a system attempts to generate, validate, and understand its own truths from within its own rules.

3.1 The Gödelian Limit of Castalia

Gödel’s incompleteness theorems demonstrate, under specific mathematical conditions, that sufficiently expressive consistent formal systems cannot establish all truths expressible within them by means of their own formal rules. The significance of Gödel’s result is therefore not simply that “there are things mathematics cannot know,” but that formal self-contained systems possess intrinsic limitations that cannot be eliminated by adding further internal sophistication alone.

Castalia can be read as a cultural analogue of this problem.

It possesses an enormous internal capacity for synthesis. It can connect music with mathematics, mathematics with philosophy, philosophy with history, and history with metaphysics. Yet the system cannot, by increasing the sophistication of these internal relationships, finally answer the question of whether Castalia itself ought to exist in its present form.

That question lies outside the normal operations of the Game.

Castalia can represent the world; it cannot adequately represent its own dependence upon the world.

This is the deeper significance of Knecht’s growing unease. His intellectual development is not simply a rejection of scholarship. It is the recognition that a system cannot derive the ultimate justification for its own existence solely from the successful operation of the system itself.

3.2. The Inductive Alternative

The alternative is an open epistemic system: provisional rather than absolute, iterative rather than self-contained, and continuously exposed to evidence that may require revision.

Modern Bayesian reasoning provides an especially clear formal analogy. An agent begins with a prior distribution, encounters new evidence, and updates its posterior beliefs according to the evidential weight of that observation. The posterior then becomes the starting point for subsequent inference. Knowledge is therefore not a finished structure but an ongoing process of belief revision under conditions of uncertainty.

This is fundamentally different from a system whose principal activity is the internal recombination of propositions it has already accepted.

The distinction can be formulated schematically:

Closed system:
axioms → deduction → internal consistency → further deduction

Open system:
prior → observation → evidence → posterior → new observation → revision

The second structure does not abolish reason. It makes reason answerable to experience.

This is precisely where the Castalian tragedy becomes visible. Castalia has perfected the first structure while progressively neglecting the second. It treats the accumulated intellectual achievements of humanity as an almost complete symbolic universe, while the unpredictable, politically unstable, morally demanding world outside its walls becomes increasingly remote.

Knecht’s awakening therefore requires more than a change of opinion. He must break the closed Castalian epistemic circuit and re-enter the world from which the intellectual system has become detached.

His departure is consequently both epistemological and spiritual.

He does not abandon Geist; he refuses to allow Geist to become self-enclosed.

The movement is not from reason to irrationality, nor from intellect to mere experience. It is from a closed order of knowledge toward an open encounter with reality. The Glass Bead Game remains valuable precisely because it represents an extraordinary achievement of synthesis. But synthesis without continual exposure to what exceeds the system eventually becomes sterile.

In this sense, Knecht’s final movement beyond Castalia can be understood as Hesse’s answer to the problem that Hofstadter, through Gödel, later formulates in mathematical and cognitive terms: a sufficiently complex intellectual system may discover that its greatest limitation is not what it cannot represent, but its inability to recognize that reality is never exhausted by its representations.

Castalia is not merely sterile; it is parasitic on the civilization outside it.

The distinction you are making is crucial:

Castalia itself produces almost nothing new. It preserves, refines, classifies, synthesizes, and aestheticizes achievements that originated elsewhere.
The Glass Bead Game is its genuine intellectual creation. But precisely because the Game is the purest expression of Castalia’s genius, it also embodies Castalia’s fatal limitation: it is a closed symbolic system.
The Game can create new relationships among existing forms of knowledge, but it cannot generate new empirical knowledge about the world.
Consequently, Castalia’s intellectual productivity becomes increasingly second-order: it thinks about what humanity has already thought.
The outside world, meanwhile, remains the source of new historical experience, political problems, suffering, scientific discoveries, and ultimately new intellectual material.

That gives the novel a rather devastating paradox:

Castalia has created the perfect instrument for understanding everything that has already been understood—and thereby made itself incapable of not only understanding what comes next but to contribute and uphold reason to change.

4. The Biographical Escher Staircase – ends

The trajectory of Josef Knecht’s biography can be read as an Escher staircase: an apparent ascent through successive levels of intellectual and institutional mastery that eventually returns the traveler to the point from which he began—but with the decisive difference that the traveler has changed.

Knecht’s ascent through Castalia is therefore not simply a career progression. At each stage, an apparent achievement incorporates its own contradiction. The higher Knecht rises within the system, the more clearly he perceives the limitations of the system itself.

Stage	Biographical Milestone	Systemic and Psychological Integration
1. The Call	Recognition by the Music Master	Awakening to a form of harmony that cannot be reduced to academic knowledge or verbal doctrine.
2. Internalizing the Antithesis	The encounters and debates with Plinio Designori	Recognition that the secular world possesses forms of experience and responsibility excluded by Castalian intellectualism.
3. Diplomat of Castalia	The missions to Mariafels in the interaction with Patre Jacobus.	Direct encounter with history, religion, and lived human reality outside the Castalian frame.
4. Master of the Game	Attainment of the highest technical competence	Complete mastery of the symbolic system that has formed him.
5. Magister Ludi	Assuming the highest office in the Game	The paradox becomes unavoidable: at the summit of Castalian achievement, Knecht discovers that mastery of the system does not constitute mastery of reality.

Knecht’s journey toward ultimate synthesis is mapped across an evolving trajectory of foundational mentors and foils. Each figure expands his epistemic horizon, shifting his path from pure aesthetic isolation toward worldly engagement:

Plinio Designori (The Antithesis): Although a peer rather than a traditional elder master, Plinio serves as Knecht’s essential worldly mentor and ideological antagonist. Operating as a loud advocate for the laïcistic, secular world, his constant debates act as the primary psychological friction that forces Knecht to recognize the sterility of the ivory tower, ultimately providing the catalyst for his final defection.The sequence is important precisely because Knecht does not escape Castalia before mastering it. He reaches its highest institutional and intellectual position. His final rebellion is therefore not the revolt of an outsider who has failed to understand the system. It is the judgment of an insider who has understood it too well.

The Music Master (Magister Musicae): Knecht’s primordial spiritual guide and mentor. He introduces the young protagonist to the serene, meditative heart of music and contemplation. He embodies the pure, uncorrupted ideal of Castalia—an intellectual baseline of harmony, humility, and absolute focus.

Thomas von der Trave (The Predecessor): The reigning Magister Ludi before Knecht. He represents the absolute pinnacle of Castalian institutional mastership, classical diplomacy, and formal administration. He grooms Knecht to handle the vast administrative weights of the Order, transitioning him from a pure scholar to an institutional steward.

The Elder Brother: The Taoist hermit of the Bamboo Grove. By teaching Knecht classical Chinese calligraphy, the translation of ancient texts, and the rhythmic wisdom of the I Ching, he introduces an organic, nature-aligned baseline of contemplation. He demonstrates a form of self-contained spirituality entirely detached from Castalia’s institutional rigidity.

Pater Jacobus: The Benedictine monk, scholar, and eminent historian of Mariafels. He introduces Knecht to the verticality of historic time, institutional survival, and the fluid dynamics of global politics. He shatters Knecht’s illusion that Castalia is an eternal, self-sustaining paradise, grounding his intellect in temporal and secular reality.

At the summit of the Castalian hierarchy, the staircase turns back upon itself.

The Glass Bead Game has achieved extraordinary formal perfection, but perfection has become stagnation. Castalia can synthesize the intellectual achievements of centuries, but it cannot generate the unpredictable experiences from which genuinely new cultural forms arise. It has become increasingly capable of representing knowledge and increasingly incapable of producing knowledge.

Knecht therefore discovers the central paradox of his education:

The better he becomes at the Game, the more clearly he sees what the Game cannot contain.

This is the point at which the Escher metaphor becomes particularly apt. The staircase does not lead simply upward. It is a recursive structure like those visualized by Escher. Each achievement becomes the condition for recognizing the insufficiency of the previous level. Knecht’s development therefore proceeds not through the accumulation of knowledge alone, but through iterative revisions of the framework within which knowledge is understood.

5. The Magister Ludi’s Letter to the Board of Educators and The Zen Jump

Joseph Knecht reaches a personal and spiritual rupture point as he awakens to the dangers of Castalia’s ivory-tower isolation from the real world. Driven by the realization that the intellectual province’s survival is inextricably linked to the outside society it relies upon, he submits a formal resignation letter—the Rundschreiben (Circular Letter)—to the High Board and his fellow masters. In this document, he articulates his fears for Castalia’s future and requests permission to step down from his exalted office as Magister Ludi so that he may re-enter ordinary life as a simple schoolteacher.

Let me return from history and draw my conclusion. What all this means to us at the present time is this: Our system has already passed its flowering. Some time ago it reached that summit of blessedness which the mysterious game of world history sometimes allows to things beautiful and desirable in themselves. We are on the downward slope. … The road leads downhill. Historically we are, I believe, ripe for dismantling.

.Only the Glass Bead Game is our own invention, our speciality, our favorite, our toy. It is the ultimate, subtlest expression of our Castalian type of intellectuality. It is both the most precious and the most nonutilitarian, the most beloved and the most fragile jewel in our treasury. It is the first precious stone that will be destroyed if the continuance of Castalia is imperiled, not only because it is the frailest of our possessions, but also because to laymen it is undoubtedly the most dispensable aspect of Castalia.

When the High Board rejects his petition, Knecht realizes he must act on his own terms. He travels to the Order’s headquarters unannounced to confront Master Alexander, the President of the Order and the living embodiment of Castalian discipline and institutional authority. At first, Alexander fiercely disapproves Knecht’s decision, viewing the resignation not merely as an administrative crisis, but as a perilous betrayal of the Order. Yet, as their debate unfolds, Alexander does not encounter a reckless rebel, but a man who is completely serene, resolute, and spiritually translucent—guided by a higher sense of duty to save Castalia from its own stagnation. Recognizing that Knecht’s inner transformation is complete and entirely irreversible, Alexander’s anger dissolves into sorrow. He realizes that institutional rules no longer apply to a spirit that has outgrown them, and he quietly relinquishes his resistance, surrendering to the reality of his friend’s departure.

After formally laying down his insignia and the seals of his office, Knecht officially leaves the Order and steps beyond the borders of Castalia. Setting out on foot, he heads toward the capital of the worldly government to reunite with his old friend, Plinio Designori, ready to embrace his new calling.

5.1. Knecht’s Zen jump outside of the closed formal GBG system

In Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (EGB), Douglas Hofstadter establishes an intriguing parallel between the mathematical limits of logic in closed formal systems and the philosophical traditions of Zen Buddhism, centering both on the concept of “jumping out of the system”. Kurt Goedel’s First Incompleteness Theorem provides the definitive mathematical proof for why an “outbreak” to a meta-level in a in closed formal systems is a logical necessity. The Glass Bead Game is such a system. An observer (here Master Ludi Knecht) must jump outside of the system to a higher meta-level, using a meta-language to analyze (and save) the system from the outside.

At this point, a comparison with Zen becomes illuminating, provided it is understood as an interpretive analogy rather than as a literal description of Hesse’s narrative technique or hint of singular reading of the following climax.

Hesse’s engagement with Asian thought was deep and lifelong. He was familiar with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Chinese Zen, and his religious thought repeatedly sought a unity beyond rigid doctrinal boundaries.

The conceptual affinity with Zen lies in the recognition that a sufficiently elaborate conceptual system can itself become an obstacle to direct apprehension. The problem is not that reason is false. The problem is that reason can become trapped within its own representations.

The Zen koan provides a useful analogy: it pushes discursive reasoning toward a point at which further logical manipulation ceases to resolve the problem. The decisive movement is not the discovery of another proposition within the system, but a transformation of the relationship to the system itself.

Knecht reaches an analogous threshold.

He has argued, reasoned, negotiated, taught, mastered, administered, and finally governed. Yet none of these activities resolves the contradiction between Castalia’s intellectual perfection and its increasing detachment from life.

He therefore stops arguing within the system.

He leaves it.

He enters the outer laïcite/secular World of his lifelong friend Plinio Designori with the seed or blueprint of the Syntheses of Castalia and the outer World. He becomes the tutor of his son: Tito Designori.

5.2. The existential jump – his enigmatic drowning

In the morning, when he sensed the house awakening, he rose. Finding a dressing gown laid ready beside his bed, he put it on, and stepped out through the rear door that Tito had shown him the night before into the arcade that connected the house with the bath hut by the lake.Before him the little lake lay motionless, gray-green.

It is important, not to reduce the lake scene itself to a deliberate Zen suicide. Knecht does not consciously decide to drown. After leaving Castalia, he accompanies Tito to the mountain retreat and, despite being physically unprepared for the cold-water swim, follows the boy into the lake. He is overwhelmed by the conditions and drowns.

Tito appeared, in bathing trunks. He shook hands with the Magister and pointing to the cliffs opposite said: “You’ve come at just the right moment; the sun will be rising in a minute. Oh, it’s glorious up here.

Knecht gave him a friendly nod. He had learned long ago that Tito was an early riser, a runner, wrestler, and hiker, if only from protest against his father’s casual, unsoldierly, comfort-loving ways. …

Knecht welcomes it all, and was determined to share his interest in sports as a means for winning over and taming the temperamental young man. It would be only one means among several, and not at all the most important; music, for example, would lead them much further.

The boy, filled with the solemn beauty of the moment and the glorious sensation of his youth and strength, stretched his limbs with rhythmic arm movements, which his whole body soon took up, celebrating the break of day in an enthusiastic dance and expressing his deep oneness with the surging, radiant elements. His steps flew in joyous homage toward the victorious sun and reverently retreated from it; his outspread arms embraced mountain, lake, and sky…

The boy himself was in the grip of his impulse, without knowing what was happening to him. He was not performing a dance he already knew, a dance he had practiced before.,,,

The words were barely uttered, the challenge to a swimming race with the sun barely issued, when Tito with a tremendous leap plunged headfirst into the lake.

Everything now matters because Hesse makes the ending radically ambiguous. The death is neither simply accident nor straightforward suicide. It is the tragic consequence of Knecht’s first attempt to inhabit the physical world he had chosen over Castalia.

The summons was stronger than the warning, his will stronger than his instinct. He quickly shed the light dressing gown, took a deep breath, and threw himself into the water at the same spot where his pupil had dived.

The lake, fed by glacial waters so that even in the warmest days of summer one had to be inured to it, received him with an icy cold, slashing in its enmity. He had steeled himself for a thorough chilling, but not for this fierce cold which seemed to surround him with leaping flames and after a moment of fiery burning began to penetrate rapidly into him.

After the dive he had risen quickly to the surface, caught sight of Tito swimming far ahead of him, felt bitterly assailed by this icy, wild, hostile element, but still believed he could lessen the distance, that he was engaging in the swimming race, was fighting for the boy’s respect and comradeship, for his soul — when he was already fighting with Death, who had thrown him and was now holding him in a wrestler’s grip. Fighting with all his strength, Knecht held him off as long as his heart continued to beat..

Knecht has spent his life attempting to cross boundaries between systems. At the end, he crosses the ultimate boundary: from protected intellectual existence into immediate physical reality.

The man who has mastered the Game cannot master the lake. And that is precisely the point. And more.

What follows now is defensible manifold as Hesse’s novel has been created in many parallel layers – genuinely his own manifold experience. The climax is a diamond, its sparkling depends on the reader questions and position and the light they let shine on it. Nevertheless any interpretation, subjective as it is, ought to be defended.

6. The Hegelian Aufhebung: From Opposition to Integration

The final movement of the novel can then be interpreted through Hegelian Aufhebung: the simultaneous negation, preservation, and elevation of an earlier form.

Castalia and the secular world initially appear as opposites.

Castalia represents disciplined intellect, contemplation, hierarchy, continuity, and spiritual refinement.

The secular world represents history, contingency, embodiment, political responsibility, sexuality, suffering, and uncontrolled change.

Neither side is sufficient.

Castalia without the world becomes sterile. The world without cultivated reflection and transcendence risks becoming chaotic and spiritually shallow.

Knecht’s insight is therefore not that Castalia must be destroyed and replaced by the secular world. His insight is that the two must enter into a new relationship. Essentially his insights of both sides proved the seed of a Synthesis of both world in an Geglian sense. This is the crucial distinction between revolution and Aufhebung.

Knecht does not reject what Castalia has given him. He carries Castalia outward.

His intended vocation is extraordinarily modest by Castalian standards: he will become a teacher.

Yet this apparent descent in rank is actually the highest practical expression of Castalia’s original purpose. Knecht’s circular letter argues that Castalia’s knowledge must return to the society that sustains it, particularly through education. Scholarly interpretation has likewise emphasized that his departure is conceived as a return of Castalian knowledge to the wider culture rather than its abandonment.

This makes the final relationship between Knecht and Tito, the Son of his lifelong friend especially significant.

Tito is not simply “the secular world.” He represents a form of existence that Castalia cannot manufacture: spontaneous, embodied, instinctive, unfinished, and therefore open to development.

At sunrise, Tito’s spontaneous dance is not a calculated ritual. It is an immediate response to the world before him. Knecht, the master of symbolic forms, encounters something that precedes symbolic mediation.

And then Knecht follows Tito into the cold water and dies. The tragedy is not that Knecht has failed to escape Castalia.

He has escaped it.

His tragedy is that he does not live long enough to demonstrate what the synthesis might become.

But Hesse deliberately transfers the consequence of Knecht’s death to Tito. The boy’s experience of Knecht’s death produces a sudden moral awakening. His world is no longer merely a playground of instinct and youthful arrogance. He has encountered responsibility, mortality, sacrifice, and the consequences of another person’s trust. Scholarly readings of the ending likewise emphasize that Knecht’s death becomes a transformative event in Tito’s development.

The young swimmer had looked back frequently and seen with satisfaction that the Magister had followed him into the water. Now he peered once again, no longer saw him, and became uneasy. He looked and called, then turned and swam rapidly back. He could not find him. Swimming and diving, he searched for the lost swimmer until his strength too began to give out in the bitter cold. Staggering, breathless, he reached land at last, saw the dressing gown lying on the shore, and picking it up began mechanically rubbing his body and limbs until the numbed skin warmed again. Stunned, he sat down in the sunlight and stared into the water, whose cool blue-green now blinked at him strangely empty, alien, and evil. He felt overpowered by perplexity and deep sorrow, for with the waning of his physical weakness, awareness and the terror of what had happened returned to him.

Oh! he thought in grief and horror, now I am guilty of his death. And only now, when there was no longer need to save his pride or offer resistance, he felt, in shock and sorrow, how dear this man had already become to him. And since in spite of all rational objections he felt responsible for the Master’s death, from there came over him, with a premonitory shudder of awe, a sense that this guilt would utterly change him and his life, and would demand much greater things of him than he had ever before demanded of himself.

Thus Knecht’s life ends at precisely the moment when his intellectual project begins to enter the world.

His body disappears. His education of Tito has barely begun.

But the seed for Synthesis, carrying on Castalia on in the outer would has been planted.

The final paradox is therefore profoundly Hesse:

Knecht’s greatest intellectual achievement is to diagnose the failure of the institution that made him an intellectual—and to recognize that he can no longer reform it from within.

He does not abandon Castalia. He carries Castalia beyond Castalia.

That is the true Zen “jump.”

And it transforms the Escher staircase. The staircase does not end in another higher institutional level. It ends when Knecht realizes that there is no higher level inside the staircase. Just contentious up and down, as progress is illusion.

He must step off it.

That is why the ending is simultaneously tragic, spiritual, epistemological, and political.

Castalia has perfected the art of looking inward. Knecht’s final act is to turn its gaze outward.

7. Knecht’s personal trajectory – His Three attached CV’s

Knecht’s personal trajectory is documented by mandatory CV’s written during his is free study phase before accepted to the Castalian order..

The three autobiographical narratives appended to The Glass Bead Game can be read as symbolic rehearsals of different modes of psychic existence. They should not, however, be treated as literal evidence of reincarnation. Hesse presents them as imaginative exercises in which Knecht explores what his life might have been under radically different historical and cultural conditions.

Read through a Jungian lens, they nevertheless function almost like successive experiments in individuation.

7.1. The Rainmaker — Turu

The Rainmaker represents a world dominated by immediate physical existence, ritual, fertility, and collective survival. When Turu’s power to summon rain fails, he accepts himself as the sacrificial instrument through which the tribe may be restored.

The important element is not simply sacrifice but the surrender of individual autonomy to a larger order of being.

This anticipates one dimension of Knecht’s final fate: the individual life becomes meaningful through its relation to something larger than the individual ego.

7.2. The Father Confessor — Josephus Famulus

Josephus represents a very different psychic configuration. His struggle is inward and spiritual. He encounters in Dion a figure who mirrors his own inadequacy and spiritual conflict.

The apparent opposition between confessor and penitent eventually collapses. Each discovers himself reflected in the other.

This can be read in Jungian terms as an encounter with the Shadow: what initially appears to be an external adversary turns out to be an aspect of oneself. The resolution does not consist in defeating the opposite but in recognizing and integrating it.

7.3. The Indian Life — Prince Dasa

Dasa introduces the most explicitly Eastern dimension. His apparently complete worldly existence—power, sexuality, jealousy, violence, revenge—is revealed through the yogic encounter as an illusion within a larger reality.

Here the central movement is the collapse of identification with the phenomenal world: Maya.

Dasa does not simply learn that worldly experience is unreal. He experiences the instability of the ego that takes worldly experience as its ultimate reality.

Taken together, the Three Lives therefore provide three radically different modes of transcendence:

Turu — sacrifice of the individual to the collective.

Josephus — integration of the divided self through the encounter with its opposite.

Dasa — dissolution of the ego’s identification with phenomenal reality.

Knecht’s own biography subsequently combines elements of all three.

This makes it tempting to describe the Three Lives as “rehearsal lives” of Knecht personally. But their literary function is more subtle. They are better understood as symbolic possibilities of the his Self—imaginative forms through which Knecht explores different ways of transcending the isolated ego.

The achievement is therefore not that Knecht has literally designed these lives before. It is that he has already learned to imagine himself beyond the narrow Ivory Tower identity imposed upon him by Castalia.

Knecht’s development can also be read against Hesse’s earlier exploration of individuation in Steppenwolf (1927). Harry Haller remains trapped within a rigid opposition between the cultivated bourgeois intellectual and the instinctual “wolf.” The Magic Theater destabilizes this binary and reveals a psyche composed of multiple potential selves rather than a simple opposition of two identities.

Haller’s development, however, remains incomplete. He encounters multiplicity but has not yet achieved a stable integration of it. The Magic Theater is the chronic of a failed Jungian individuation and as such also the predecessor of the Glass Bead Game,.

8. Conclusion

Hesse’s critique is not a critique of intellect, reason, or science. It is also not simplistic political criticism, but one regarding the retreat and regression of an elite facing a desolate repressive reality. It is a critique of intellect becoming closed upon itself. Castalia mistakes the perfection of its intellectual forms for the perfection of civilization. The Glass Bead Game is its supreme (the single) achievement—and, precisely because it is a closed system, the clearest expression of its sterility. Knecht’s awakening begins when he understands that knowledge must remain answerable to reality, and that Ratio requires transcendence if it is not to become self-referential technique. He leaves Castalia not because he has failed to master it, but because he has mastered it and therefore recognizes its limits. He carries its intellectual inheritance back toward the world, but dies before he can institutionalize the synthesis. Hesse leaves the seed to Tito—and the ambiguity—to the reader.

Hesse, according to Thomas Mann 1937 in regards to him and his life’s work, a “German in that old, joyous, and free sense to which the German name owes its greatest renown” which has placed him at odds with the Germany then and after the War, while his international reception eventually recognized precisely the quality that his own country had difficulty accepting.

Thomas Mann emphasized this quality in Hesse with drastic clarity . In 1946 he wrote to his lifelong friend: “Your incorruptible eye for truth is, naturally, what the Germans cannot forgive you”(see postscript for full text). Mann’s judgment points toward a paradox at the heart of Hesse’s work: the writer who remained deeply German in the “old, joyful and free sense” of the word could become most fully understood only when his work was encountered beyond the confines of official Germany.

Twenty-five years later, Volker Michels commented the remarkable reversal: Hesse’s international reception—first in the United States, then Japan, Latin America, Scandinavia, and even the Soviet Union—returned to Germany a Hesse whom Germany itself had not fully recognized. The “sympathy of humanity” that Thomas Mann had foreseen had arrived from abroad..

Hesse writes about Castalia, a secluded intellectual elite that has not merely lost contact with the world. It has retreated, fallen silent, and regressed. Knecht—and Hesse himself—refuse to become Castalians.

9. Postscript

I wrote two other essays about the Glass Bead Game. One 2012 about the Internet as analogous of Hesse’s feuilletonist age (and proved to be right). One recently, about today’s Internet as a Neural Network ecosystems.

9.1. The essay trilogy

2012: The Feuilletonist Internet (The Scattered Mind)

Hesse described the “Age of the Feuilleton” as a time of frantic, disconnected intellectuality.
People consumed bite-sized, contextless facts (e.g., “Anectodes about historical figures” or “Why a specific triangle matters”).
The 2012 internet of social media feeds, blogs, and algorithmic clickbait was the ultimate realization of this—infinite, shallow, fragmented data designed to amuse rather than enlighten.

This was ahead of time in 2012. Connecting Hesse’s “Feuilletonistic Age” (the Age of the Fragment/Trivia) to the early internet was one thing, but framing Neural Networks as an ecosystem for the modern era is even more grave.

It seems we follow evolution Hesse feared not predicting the technology of course: we transitioned from an internet of scattered, shallow distraction into a fully integrated, self-sustaining digital biosphere that mimics and consumes human culture.

2026: The Neural Network Ecosystem (The Monoculture)

We are no longer just consuming scattered fragments; the fragments have been fed into a giant, living computational blender.
The neural network acts as a literal ecosystem. It feeds on human text, digests it, and secretes synthesized culture back out, creating a feedback loop.
Just like Castalia, this ecosystem is incredibly impressive, but it risks becoming a closed, sterile loop. If AI only trains on AI-generated text and images, the digital ecosystem suffers from genetic drift and collapses into generic “authoritative sounding truth with little new sholarly value.

By writing these essays,I highlighted what Plinio Designori or the Elder Brother did in the novel. Standing outside the pristine, mathematical illusion of the digital Castalia and documenting how it warps human consciousness.

9.2. Nachwort Hermann Hesse Thomas Mann – Briefwechsel, Bibliothek Suhrkamp

Thomas Mann 1937 über Hesse: “Denn Deutscheres gibt es nicht als diesen Dichter und das Werk seines Lebens nichts das Deutsche wäre in dem alten frohen und freien Sinn, dem der Deutsche Name seinen besten Ruhm, dem er die Sympathie der Menschheit verdankt.” Die Sympathie der Menschheit, ja, aber noch lange nicht die des offiziellen Deutschlands. “Denn Ihr unbestechlicher Blick für das Wahre” schrieb Thomas Mann 1946 an Hesse, “ist es natürlich den ihnen die Deutschen nicht verzeihen. Wem hätten sie denn je verziehen? Sie lieben die Wahrheit nicht, wollen sie nicht wissen, kennen nicht Ihren Reiz und ihre reinigende Kraft. Sie lieben den Dunst und Dusel, das faule wehleidige brutale Gemüt und möchten noch heute nachdem sie sich damit zu Kot und Unrat gemacht haben unter den Völkern am liebsten jeden morden, der ihnen den Seelenfusel verleiten will.“

Frankfurt am Main April 1975 Volker Michels: “Dann aber, 25 Jahre später, ereignet sich das spektakuläre Kulturgeschichtlich höchst ungewöhnliche Phänomen, dass durch das unvoreingenommene Ausland eben dieses übernationale Deutschtum Hermann Hesse’s wieder ins Bewusstsein zurückgerufen wurde. Die von Thomas Mann vorausgesagte Sympathie der Menschheit stellte sich auf wahrhaft internationale Weise ein. Allen voran war es die junge Generation der USA dicht gefolgt von Japan, Lateinamerika den skandinavischen Ländern sogar der UDSSR, die Hermann Hesse für sich entdeckten, ihn nach Deutschland zurückimportierten und sich an der Basis nicht weniger als an den Hochschulen, in einer Intensität mit seinem Werk auseinandersetzten, wie sie in Hesses eigenem Sprachraum bisher noch nicht möglich gewesen war.”

PRIMARY SOURCE APPARATUS USED

Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979), Douglas R. Hofstadter. The book is concerned directly with the relations or links between open or closed formal systems. Hofstadter shows that formal system underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it and have been visualized by Escher and turned in music by Bach. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and its description of self referential formal systems points to mathematical analogues behind Castalia’s Glass Bead Game.

Major Novels and Works by Hermann Hesse

Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) – Hesse’s diamond like masterpiece, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946
For the original German text, you can find the chapter in the full text of The Glass Bead Game on HolyBooks.com or the excerpted section on Wattpad.
Demian (1919) – The story of Emil Sinclair’s youth, deeply influenced by C. G. Jung’s psychoanalysis.
Siddhartha (1922) – An Indian poetic novel depicting the spiritual journey of a Brahman’s son.
Der Steppenwolf (1927) – The inner conflict and existential division of Harry Haller between the bourgeois world and his dark, instinctual depths. A failed Jungian Individuation.
Narciss und Goldmund (1930) – An exploration of the relationship between intellect and nature, spirit and sensuality
Mein Glaube (My Belief) (2016) In addition to the two fundamental reflections “My Faith” and “A Bit of Theology,” this volume collects published and unpublished Hesse texts concerning Asian belief systems.

Hesse Secondary Sources, Correspondence, and Critical Materials

Hermann Hesse – Thomas Mann: Briefwechsel: The collected correspondence documenting the deep intellectual relationship, mutual respect, and letters exchanged between Hesse and Thomas Mann.
Materialien zu Hermann Hesses „Der Steppenwolf“ (Suhrkamp)Translation: A comprehensive volume of critical source materials, letters, and reviews published by Suhrkamp Verlag providing deep context on the reception and creation of Der Steppenwolf.
Traumgeschenk (Suhrkamp)Translation: “Dream Gift” — An anthological collection containing essays, diary entries, stories, and poems focusing on Hesse’s lifelong psychological fascination with dreams.
Kindheit des Zauberers: “Childhood of the Magician” — An autobiographical fairy tale originally written in 1923, reflecting on his childhood memories, magic, and youth.
Hermann Hesse und China (Adrian Hsia, Suhrkamp)Translation: A seminal secondary source by scholar Adrian Hsia exploring Hesse’s profound relationship with Eastern philosophy, Daoism, and Chinese literature.

Jungian Core Texts

CW 8 — On the Nature of the Psyche
CW 9/I — The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
CW 10 — Civilization in Transition
CW 11 — Psychology and Religion
CW 14 — Mysterium Coniunctionis ( transformation motifs)

August 16, 2026

Lucia of Syracuse: Timeless Beacon
Saint Lucy’s life and legacy offer enduring lessons that resonate deeply in our contemporary violence and uncertainties. Lucia of Syracuse’s hagiography is an inversion of an archetypal hero’s journey: where the hero wins by overcoming power, the martyr triumphs through sacrifice. Lucia’s life serves as a reminder that resilience, kindness, and unwavering commitment to justice and faith can bring light to even the darkest times.

Lucia of Syracuse, also known as Saint Lucy, was a Christian martyr who lived during the late 3rd and early 4th centuries in the Roman Empire. Born to a wealthy family in Syracuse, Sicily, Lucia is celebrated for her unwavering faith, her dedication to the poor, and her courageous defiance of oppression. Her story, though rooted only partial in historic facts, holds profound relevance in the modern world, offering lessons on resilience, selflessness, and the pursuit of justice.

Lucia of Syracuse Historical Background

Lucia of Syracuse was born around 283 CE into a time of intense persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian and the Tetrarchy (ruled A.D 284-305), intent on reviving the waning Roman Empire by enforcing worship of its traditional gods. The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire rescinding Christians’ legal rights and demanding that they comply with traditional religious practices. Abandoning the tradition of a citizen king, Diocletian elevated himself above the masses by initiating imperial ceremonies and requiring his subjects to prostrate themselves in his presence. While Diocletian did not demand personal worship as a deity, his policies required public sacrifices to Roman gods as a demonstration of loyalty to the empire.

Eutychia, Lucia’s mother, arranged a marriage for her with a pagan suitor, but Lucia had already vowed to remain chaste and dedicate her life to God. When her suitor discovered her Christian faith, he denounced her to the Roman authorities. Lucia was subjected to brutal torture and ultimately martyred in 304 CE. Despite the hardships, she remained steadfast in her faith, reportedly declaring, “No one can take Christ from me.”

Lucia’s feast day tomorrow, December 13, is celebrated with great reverence in many Christian traditions, coincides with my monastery retreat this weekend. Before the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582, the winter solstice occurred around December 13. This is how Saint Lucia’s feast day (December 13) became associated with “light” returning after the darkest day. Lucia, whose name means light (from Latin lux), symbolized hope and the coming of longer days. The symbolism of light in her story — often depicted with her holding a lamp or a crown of candles — underscores her role as a beacon of hope and faith in dark times but inherit also Jungian and Taoist concepts.

Saint Lucy’s life and legacy offer enduring lessons that resonate deeply in our contemporary context:
1. Courage in the Face of Adversity Lucia’s steadfastness in the face of persecution reminds us of the importance of standing firm in our beliefs and values, even under intense pressure. In modern times, as minorities like Christians, Alawites, Yazidis, and others, or oppressed ethnicities face persecution in regions, where proxy wars and crippling sanctions exacerbate suffering of their countries, Lucia’s story stands as a timeless example of resilience and faith under oppression.
2. Advocacy for the Vulnerable Lucia’s dedication to aiding the poor reflects the Christian call to care for the “least of these.” Her acts of charity remind us of the moral imperative to confront human-made tragedies such as war, poverty, and the displacement of entire communities. These injustices are often perpetuated by powerful forces whose actions contradict their professed values, highlighting the hypocrisy of empires that have lost their way and, ironically, their own foundational faith. Lucia’s example also underscores the enduring triumph of spiritual power over temporal force, challenging us to prioritize compassion and justice over dominance and greed.
3. Symbol of Light and Hope Lucia’s association with light holds a universal appeal, transcending religious and cultural boundaries. Her story reminds us that even in the darkest times—whether personal struggles, war, or the deprivation caused by political strife—small acts of faith and kindness can bring illumination and hope to others. Her courage and compassion inspire a belief in the transformative power of goodness in a broken world.
4. Faithful Witness in a Hostile World Lucia’s martyrdom under Emperor Decius reflects the high cost of faith in a hostile environment. Today, her story resonates with those who remain steadfast in their beliefs despite oppression or violence. While some factions, including groups that paradoxically receive indirect international support, may persecute minorities, her example is a reminder of the enduring strength of conviction and the call to resist injustice.
Jungian Symbolism of Lucia of Syracuse in Dante’s Divine Comedy

In Carl Jung’s psychology, individuation is the path to wholeness, achieved by integrating the shadow—those hidden, repressed parts of ourselves. The shadow, like the darkness of winter, holds our unacknowledged fears and desires. Ignoring it leads to inner conflict, but facing it brings growth and transformation.

Saint Lucia may symbolize this process. Her fate, tied to the darkest time of persecution, reminds us that light can only be found by first confronting the dark. Like Lucia’s candle piercing the shadows, individuation requires courage to illuminate what we hide within ourselves. By accepting our shadow, we reclaim lost parts of the soul and move toward true wholeness—a self both light and dark, balanced and complete.

Saint Lucia (Lucy) plays a subtle yet significant role in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. She appears as a celestial figure aiding Dante on his spiritual journey, symbolizing grace, light, and divine assistance—qualities deeply tied to her historical and symbolic representation. Dante especially highlights the believed chain of mediation of graces that begin with Christ, through, Mary, and then through particular saints.

The Inferno is, of course, a story of Dante being guided by Virgil through Hell. We learn that Virgil was summoned as Dante’s tour guide by his beloved Beatrice, who was summoned by Saint Lucia.

Her role in helping Dante ascend from the Inferno to Purgatory aligns with the symbolism of individuation as a saint associated with vision, clarity, and overcoming blindness—both physical and spiritual. Lucia’s name is derived from the Latin lux (light), which aligns perfectly with her role as a figure of divine illumination. She appears when Dante is in moments of despair or weakness, providing light, clarity, and divine assistance. In the larger allegory of the Divine Comedy, she represents the grace and guidance necessary for the soul to transition from darkness (sin) to light (salvation).

Thus, Saint Lucy’s presence in Inferno and Purgatorio underscores her role as a pivotal mediator of divine grace and compassion, helping Dante overcome his fears and advance on his spiritual journey.

Saint Lucy in Inferno, Canto II

In Inferno Canto II, Dante is still hesitant and afraid at the prospect of undertaking his perilous journey through Hell. Beatrice descends to Virgil in Limbo and reveals that Lucia had interceded on Dante’s behalf to help him overcome his doubt and begin the journey.

Here, Beatrice recounts Lucia’s role as an intermediary:

“Lucia, foe of all that is cruel, arose
and came to me where I was sitting with
the ancient Rachel. She said: Beatrice,
true praise of God, why do you not assist
the one who loved you so, he left the vulgar crowd?
Do you not hear the anguish in his cry?
Do you not see the death he battles on
the flood that swells against the nearer shore?”
(Inferno II, 97–104, trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

Lucia is described as “nemica di ciascun crudele”—the “enemy of all cruelty”—reflecting her compassion and readiness to aid those in need. She urges Beatrice to help Dante, thus setting in motion the chain of divine intervention that brings Virgil to guide him.

In this context, Lucia serves as a symbol of divine grace and intervention, providing Dante with the courage to begin his arduous journey through Hell and, ultimately, towards redemption.

Saint Lucy in Purgatorio, Canto IX

In Purgatorio, Canto IX, Lucia reappears at a critical juncture to assist Dante in his transition from Hell to Purgatory. After Dante falls asleep, Lucia carries him up to the Gate of Purgatory, a feat symbolizing divine aid in overcoming human weakness.

Virgil describes what happened to Dante as he slept:

“In this deep night before the dawn began,
just as the sun was rising in the east,
a lady, young and fair, appeared to me.
I saw her wandering through the sleeping world;
she bent down, gently gathered you, and took you—
and now the light of day leads us to her.”
(Purgatorio IX, 49–54, trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

Lucia, in this moment, embodies divine assistance and grace, physically carrying Dante upwards—a task that he could not have accomplished on his own. It reflects the theological belief that humans require divine grace to ascend from sin toward salvation.

Virgil’s account emphasizes the contrast between human effort (Dante’s struggles) and divine intervention (Lucia’s aid). By carrying him, Lucia allows Dante to bypass the immediate difficulties of climbing to the gate, symbolizing the grace that makes the transition from sin (Hell) to repentance (Purgatory) possible.

Saint Lucia: Overcoming Power through Sacrifice (update after retreat weekend)

The story of Saint Lucia transcends historical facts, adding to it freely during time to create a symbolic narrative. As a martyr, Lucia’s life aligns with the archetypal hero’s journey, yet with a distinct inversion: where the hero wins by overcoming power through action, the martyr triumphs by surrendering power through sacrifice.

This is like in Taoist philosophy, the concept of wu wei—effortless action—is central to understanding how forces of nature interact in harmony. Water overcoming stone perfectly illustrates the Taoist approach to power: not through direct force, but through subtle persistence and adaptability.

Water as the martyr, in its fluidity, does not struggle against obstacles but flows around them, gradually wearing away the hardest stone. Over time, its soft and yielding nature carves its path. In the same way, the hero’s victory through direct action contrasts with the martyr’s victory through surrender, like water’s triumph over stone. The hero confronts power head-on, using force and will.

This Taoist metaphor suggests like the hagiography that true strength does not lie in confrontation, but in yielding not by defeating obstacles but by flowing through them with grace and resilience.

Lucia’s defiance against the Roman authorities, refusing to renounce her faith, symbolizes resistance to external oppression. Her final act—offering her life—transforms perceived weakness into spiritual strength. When she foretells the fall of Emperor Diocletian, it underscores a profound truth: power rooted in force is temporary, while the courage of sacrifice endures.

In this way, Saint Lucia’s story serves as both a myth to help further the cause of Christianity and a model of courage. The martyr’s “loss” becomes victory, inspiring others to resist tyranny or personal limitations with courage. Whether in the hero’s conquest or the martyr’s surrender, overcoming power—external or internal—requires an unshakable commitment to truth and freedom. Lucia’s light shines not as an escape from darkness or shadow but as a beacon for those who seek the strength to face it, reminding us that true victory often comes through sacrifice.

Lucia of Syracuse’s legacy is therefore not confined to the facts of history or the rituals of religious observance. Martyr’s as well as a hero’s courage, compassion, and enduring faith continue to inspire people across the world.

— Pray for Peace
December 12, 2024
The Gospel of John and the Gnostic myth of redemption
The Shadow

What has the Gospel of John to do with Christmas?

Last weekend I checked in for a three-day time-out at my local monastery to prepare for Christmas. The countdown to Christmas is on and for many, the Advent season is one of the most beautiful in the year. But! Have we ever realized, that this story with Mary and Joseph and birth of the Messiah was Matthew actually worth one single verse? Pope Benedict, in a speech in Freiburg during his 2011 apostolic journey to Germany, recommended a “profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness” (Entweltlichung) so that the Church becomes a more credible witness and regains her spiritual role. To me ‘Entweltlichung‘ sums up the central theme of the three-day retreat and its topic, the Gospel of John nicely.

Rudolf Bultmann claims in his Theology of the new testament a closer similarity with the Gnostic myth of redemption. There is no nativity scene in the Gospel, no shepherds or three Kings/Magi can be found. John packs the birth of Jesus in a single verse, which has become famous (John 1:14): “And the Word (Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have looked at his glory, a glory as a native of the Father, full of grace and truth”. Mentioned only briefly, it comes with infinite knowledge and reflection.

Psychology was a major vehicle for revisiting Gnostic thoughts in the last century. Carl Gustav Jung, especially in his early years drawn to mysticism, wrote extensively on ancient Gnostic thinkers and mythology in works like Seven Sermons to the Dead (1916). As I wrote earlier about the psychoanalytic interpretation of the Gospel of John: the usage of the Gnostic „trademark “Logos”, was immediately interpreted by C.G. Jung as “Nous” or Sophie. In his book “Answer to Job”. Jung describes Sophie (Wisdom) as the wife of Yahweh, a good “co-author” of this demiurge, the creator of the material world. Indeed the Greek word “Logos” has a strong philosophical background and is a term for a principle of order and knowledge, “reason”, “proportion”. However, as we will see, the author of the Gospel develops a new Christian counter-cosmology – and “Cosmos” is the word for order (opposite term of “Chaos“).

Anyway, during the monastery retreat, we wanted to understand the Christmas story presented by the Gospel of John. Let’s take a closer look at what this really means to us. Note: for the reader in a hurry a short presentation is included later in this article.

Christian Cosmology

Orion and Light

The author has dealt much more than the other three evangelists with a doctrine that young Christianity fought as a heresy: the so-called gnosis (Greek: knowledge). It may be said that if this doctrine had prevailed, Christianity would have quickly disappeared. The author of the Gospel of John began to grapple with Gnostic cosmology – to develop his own.
From a Gnostic point of view, the cosmos was divided into a realm of the material and a heavenly world of light. The soul of man was a splinter of light trapped on earth in the body of the human. The world as the power of darkness watched over the soul in the prison of matter forgetting its heavenly home.
Knowledge – gnosis – was the way to salvation, the remembrance of one’s own origin from the light. Jesus was seen in this context as a teacher of light – as one who reminds people of their true spirituality: “The real world is not just a stranger to man, but a prison, a dark, stinking cave into which he is thrown. ” Man is filled with “loneliness”, “terrible fear” of the noise and cunning of the world and its demonic powers. All life executions appear as “poisoned, demonically infected”. The God of Gnosticism was hostile to life and the world, unable to love and suffer, and above all, unwilling to maim with creation. God is radically non-world, and man can only despise his life, the world, and the people’s activities as outward appearances. The world is evil because the world it was created by evil powers. Another clear distinction is, while a Gnostic will speak of Satan as the God of this world, an apocalyptist will speak of Satan as the god of the present age. To Christians the world is not imperfectly created by a Demiurge, but comes from God. This creation is good – but with the freedom of man to worsen it.

1760 the Coptic text “Pistis Sophia” (Faith-Wisdom, or Faith of Wisdom), an allegorical account of the conception of the world of the Gnostics, was purchased by the British Museum and 1851 translated into Latin and Greek. G.R.S. Mead, the great popularizer of forgotten heresies, who made “The Gnostic John the Baptist (John the Baptist the Gnostic)” known as hidden gospels, described Pistis Sophia as a Gnostic gospel. The Pistis Sophia, mentioned Stephan A. Hoeller and Phillip Jenkins “Le Jésus des sectes”, begins with an allegory of the death and resurrection of Christ, which at the same time describes the ascension and descent of the soul – the promise of a two-way street for us.

Gnostic cosmology as presented in the “Pistis Sophia, is enumerating 32 carnal desires that must be overcome in order to attain salvation. Seven deadly sins, also known as cardinal sins, must be overcome in order to attain salvation, according to Christian teachings. This is the Gospel, the good message, which has freed people like the Apostle Paul to leave everything behind, to re-think God, and to bring these thoughts into the world.

The key to the Gospel of John, in any way we approach it, is provided by the 17-verse hymnodic prologue. Those poetic words are a kind of hostile takeover of the Gnostic doctrine and manifest the birth of a Christian cosmology. The dualistic worldview – light beings here, stinking matter there – is opposed to a thoroughly positive cosmology of creation: “In the Word was life, and life was the light of man.” For John, language becomes a mystical gateway between the world of God and that of man. His view seems similar to another critic of Gnosticism, Plotin, who in his notion of the means by which man is to become divine. The Gospel of John makes the natural appeal to Christ as the only son of God, while also rejecting the notion of a completely unknowable first god of the Gnostics.

Redemption myth

Between completorium and laudes matutinae… Light cannot be seen without darkness.

The conceptual world in which John moves is completely different from that of the Synoptic Gospels. It is almost always characterized by dualistic opposites: “light and darkness”, “lies and truth,” “above and below,” “father and son,” the “God-distant” cosmos, and the “Messenger and Revealer of God”. What is peculiar are the concepts that describe salvation: “life-water”, “bread of life”, “light of the world”: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God, all things became by the Word, and without the Word nothing became that which has become.” Words full of poetic, enigmatic beauty.

Essentially, the gospel follows the Gnostic redemption myth with one decisive exception – the Redeemer himself became man: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, a glory as the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth “.

To Gnosticism however, Jesus’ suffering was understood only as appearance, for that inner spark of light is well-caught, but essentially untouchable. Light does not suffer; it only shines. Thus, in the Gnostic view, the cross of Christ was only in the realm of matter. Christianity would have become a completely different religion if the Gnostic’s had prevailed. That God really became man, that he really suffers in and at his creation, that he does not abandon it, but accompanies it as a place of blessing and his dawning reign of God – all this was (and is today) at stake in this conflict.

John counters Gnosticism sharply with this unique feature – a unique selling proposition in the market of religious beliefs: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
- Instead: The word was trapped in the flesh and lived only for appearance among us.
- Instead: In a heresy, that later became the basis of ideologies disguised as religion, which degrades Jesus only as prophet and human being.
This is not just theological theory – this approach uniquely shapes concepts and language of John. Furthermore, this Gospel clearly and early defines Christianity, for which the ‘Jesus Wars‘ needed seven Councils, from the First of Nicaea (325) to the Second Council of Nicaea (787) and few centuries to settle.

Gospel of John – Ego Emi

Language unfolds in John like a fan: a word denotes a thing and something else; Concepts suddenly shine with meaning and ambiguity. Words matter in politics. Words do matter, of course, also in religious texts. The author of the Gospel of John was even better in Greek than the author of the Gospel of Luke and in his playful use of Greek, one can find also humor. Many crucial words in the author of the Gospel of John uses have in the Greek a double meaning. On the other hand, the messianic claim is made crystal clear with the unprecedented power of ego Emi (I Am) and delivers, at the same time, a poetic density unique in the New Testament.

There are only seven miracles – signs listed in John, but each tells us very special things we need to know about Jesus:
- Changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-11);
- Healing the royal official’s son (Jn 4:46-54);
- Healing the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (Jn 5:1-15);
- Feeding the 5,000 (Jn 6:5-14);
- Walking on water (Jn 6:16-21);
- Healing the man born blind (Jn 9:1-7);
- Raising Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:1-45).
The seven “I am” words of Jesus are words full of theological force in which Jesus identifies his person with the abstract symbols of the seven signs (miracles):
- I am the bread of life
- I am the light of the world
- I am the gate of the sheep
- I am the good shepherd
- I am the resurrection and the life
- I am the truth and the life
- I am the true vine stock
In such passages, it becomes clear time and again that the whole world, life, every detail and every life is something like an abstraction and a symbol of higher things. The outside of the world reflects the sky; you just have to look or listen, because all that is hidden in the language, in the word that is of divine origin to John and whose reflection fills every human word with spirit. Crucial is: salvation and knowledge of God are not special matters for initiated Pneumatics, but the Incarnation of Jesus shows a two-way street for all the people on.

Theological features

The Gospel of John is the most demanding of the Gospels. The language of Jesus is also very different in the Gospel of John than in the synoptic tradition. The author dealt with a doctrine dangerous to Christianity: the Gnostics. The Gospel of John differs considerably from the Synoptic Gospels, localities and temporal, as well as linguistic and content wise. The gospel is characterized by speeches of Jesus; Jesus’ acts serve either as a reason for his speeches or are incorporated into larger scenes with dialogues and speeches. The text shows clear traces of a prolonged growth process. For instance, it is widely undisputed, that John Chapter 21 is the addendum of an editorial board. The gospel is framed by the prologue and the remark about the purpose of the gospel.

Most of what Jesus in this Gospel says, can be found neither in the Gospel of Mark nor in Luke nor in Matthew. It is likely that the author of John’s Gospel knew the Gospel of Mark and Luke, but used his “sources” completely free. The theological profile identifies him as an author who considers the efficacy of Jesus at a considerable interval and with a high level of reflection. He could hardly belong to the generation of the disciples, since the author intensively uses traditions whose origins are to be found in Hellenistic Judaism. He himself may have been Jewish Christian.

The Christology of John’s Gospel shows similarities to pagan or Jewish gnosis and the writings of the Qumran community. The Gnosis (Greek: “knowledge”) was a religious-dualistic stream, which took Christianity, especially in the 2nd century. Gnosis described a world (as a result of a primeval case), people (who are connected to God through a spark of divine spirit), and salvation (through radical rejection of the here and the belief in the inalienable divinity of man). One may suspect the spiritual ground of John’s gospel in the imaginative world of Jewish gnosis and the ideas of the Qumran community (a Jewish sect in the second century BC to AD 68). Until the discovery of the Library of Nag Hammadi in 1945, Irenaeus’ [Against Heresies] was the best-surviving description of the Gnostics. The discovery of their Dead Sea Scrolls in the remote Judean Desert cave was not only the greatest archaeological event of the twentieth century but gave rise to new interpretations of the Gospels. The legacy of the Qumran community was found in abundance in those Qumran scrolls. Apparently, John used the language of Gnosticism to show that Jesus was the true religion of all Gentiles.

Background and Structure

The tradition of the Church has for while proclaimed John, the son of Zebedee and “gentleman of the gentleman, who was also at his [Jesus’] breast,” the author of the Gospel. (For example, Irenaeus 115-202, Bishop of Lyons) There are, however, numerous arguments against this, such as the Gnostic language of the Gospel and some interconnections with the Gospel of Mark. The author of the Gospel of John remains unknown to us. Possible discussed variants for the origin of the Johannes are Asia Minor (especially Ephesus) and Syria. From this area, also the authors of the letters of John and the New Testament apocalypse may have originated. The presupposed discussion about the Christological confession, the literary character of John and the oldest manuscript tradition suggest a genesis of the final version of John at the beginning of the 2nd century (c.100-110).
The origin of the Johannes community may be found in the Jewish Christian milieu but in its final form, John is certainly destined for a Gentile Christian community. At the time of writing the gospel is the new, changed conflict situation. At the time of writing the gospel is the new, changed conflict situation. Apparently, in the church, Christians have appeared who denied the salvific meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (Docetists).

The prologue

The author opens his gospel with a hymn to the pre-existent logos (Jesus / logos = word). In the final verse of the hymn (1: 14-18), the Logos is identified with the Son of God. In him, the Logos became flesh and worked on earth (1:14 paradoxical linking of “flesh” as a synonym for the earthly weakness of man and “glory”). Only the logo has direct access to God. People are dependent on his revelation and interpretation of God (1:18).

The Baptist, the first disciples

The main interest here lies in the relationship determination Jesus-Baptist. The Baptist expressly emphasizes that he is not the Messiah (1:20), but the subordinate forerunner of the coming. The first two disciples of Jesus come from within the circle of the Baptist. Three more discipleship calls follow.

The revelation of Jesus before “the world”

In the first half of his Gospel, John records the public activity of Jesus. This begins with the wine miracle at the wedding in Cana (2,1-12). The purification of the temple (2: 13-25) is at the beginning of John’s activity in John. In the end, the miracle is called a “sign” (semeion). This term plays a very important role understanding Jesus’ deeds in the Gospel of John.

In the discourse of Jesus, which grows out of the conversation with Nicodemus (3: 1-21), essential underpinnings of John’s theology are unfolded. In the mission of the Son, God’s love turns to the world. The attitude of the people to the son (faith/unbelief) decides here and now about their fate (present eschatology).

God must be worshiped “in spirit and in truth” (4:24). God as the Father has given Jesus, as the Son, the authority to bring life to life (5:21).

In chapter 6 the sovereignty of Jesus is strongly emphasized (6,6) and the final attempt to make him king is not found among the Synoptic. Ultimately, however, the feeding miracle serves as the occasion for the opening speech on the bread of life. In the words of Jesus, a dispute is kindled among the disciples. But just among the faithful, Judas is the traitor.

Jesus announces his return to the Father in enigmatic words (7:33) and speaks of the gift of the Holy Ghost (7: 37f.).

In two short words of revelation, Jesus speaks of the veracity of his testimony. He is the light of the world (8:12). Afterwards, a sharp controversy between Jesus and Jews (!) evolves. Who believe in him is ignited (8: 31-59). Since they have not really accepted the deliverance of the Son, they are called sons of the devil (8:44). Jesus is greater than Abraham because he gives eternal life and was rather than this (pre-existence).

Jesus expressly opposes the traditional idea of sin (9,3). In the talk of the Good Shepherd, Jesus turns against the Pharisees and compares them to thieves, robbers, and hirelings. Jesus, on the other hand, gives his life for the sheep. At the temple there is a renewed confrontation with the Jews. In this context, the core the Gospel of John appears: “I and the Father are one.” (10:30).

The resurrection of Lazarus leads to the death of the High Council (11: 1-57). The resurrection is a sign of the mission of Jesus from God (11:42). In conversation with Marta, Jesus deals with the traditional hope of resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection and the life (11:25).

After the anointing in Bethany (12: 1-11), Jesus enters Jerusalem (12: 12-50) and the hour of glory has come. “Exaltation” and “glorification” are the concepts for the crucifixion of Jesus, which is interpreted as the victory of Jesus. After the verdict on the unbelief of the Jews (fulfillment of Isa. 6:10), Jesus, at the end of his public activity, calls for the decision of the saving faith once more.

The revelation of Jesus before “his own”

The scene of the last meal has been extended by the author of John for a long farewell speech of Jesus. For this the Lord’s Supper is missing.

In the centre of the first discourse (13.31-14.31) is the I-am-word in 14.6 (Jesus is way, truth and life). His departure is to be understood positively by the disciples.

In the second section (15:1-16:4a) the love commandment (13:34f.) and the consolation for situations of persecution take the center stage. The third part of the speech (16: 4b-24) announces again the mission of the Paraclete, who will convict the world (16:8). But he will lead the disciples “into the whole truth” (16:13). In the end, the theme of the mourning of the disciples about the departure of Jesus is again the theme, which will turn into joy (16:22)

The “high priestly prayer” of Jesus (17:1-26) completes the meal. Jesus gives account to the Father, asking for the sanctification of the disciples in the world and all believers.

The exaltation and glorification of the Revealer

Even the arrest scene shows that the author of John emphasizes even in the Passion the sovereignty of Jesus story to the utmost. The trial before Pilate describes masterfully the tearing of the earthly judge between the parties.
The solemn testimony in 19:35 emphasizes the salvific meaning of the crucifixion, and the appearances of the risen Christ are ultimately aimed at the word of Jesus in 20:29, for the disciples, must believe without seeing.

The End(s)

The editors of John added a supplementary chapter after the original conclusion of the Gospel (20: 30f.). It seems to be primarily concerned with clarifying the relationship between Peter and the favorite disciple. The favorite disciple recognizes Jesus (21: 7a), he remains until the coming of Jesus (21:22). In the end, the editors emphasize the truth of the testimony of the favorite disciple (21:24).

Conclusion

It seems today, this truth of the testimony sounds muted. Sermons aim to win an argument, instead of presenting transcendence they “negotiate” the meaning of the Word of God (or temporal demands) with the “powerful” and the “proud.” The (not entirely wrong) theory of the “marketplace of religion” emphasizes religious groups acting like businesses and political parties “innovating” their theologies and practices in response to consumer or voter demand. As in temporal realm, because of this Christian symbols became almost an empty or are actively supressed. The newly proposed, so-called missionary character of the Church, tastes very much like unreflected globalism or worse, even to give in to stale one-world ideologies and virulent expansive competition.

In this it seems, the general attitude of the Catholic Church runs contrary to what Benedict XVI said during his famous “Entweltlichung” speech to ecclesiastical and civic leaders in Germany: [The Church] “must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God.” So do we. The Gospel of John invites to a journey within transcendence: Through a Jungian perspective, this is individuation. “Every conscious process of becoming as individuation, but also every science, leads to a higher level, to transcendence, to the self, to the image of God“. In this awareness, I experience myself as both limited and eternal, as one and the other. By being unique in my personal combination, that is ultimately limited, I have the opportunity to become aware of the limitless”. (C. G. Jung).

Merry Christmas 2017

Sources:

[1] Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the new testament

[2 ] Phillip Jenkins, “Jesus Wars” How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years

[3 ] C. G. Jung – Studienausgabe in 20 Bänden. Bd. 8: Antwort auf Hiob. Bd. 9: Psychologie u. Religion, Verlag: Zürich, Ex Libris, 1972

[4 ] C. G. Jung – Zur Psychologie westlicher und östlicher Religion: Gesammelte Werke 11 1995 Patmos Verlag

[5 ]Blank, Josef – Geistliche Schriftlesung Band 4/1a: Das Evangelium nach Johannes 1. Teil Verlag: Patmos, Düsseldorf (1981)
[6 ]Blank, Josef – Geistliche Schriftlesung Band 4/1b: Das Evangelium nach Johannes 2. Teil Verlag: Patmos, Düsseldorf (1981)

[7 ] Stephan A. Hoeller Der gnostische Jung und die sieben Reden an die Toten, Schatzkammer Verlag (1981)

[8 ] Gnosticism and Early Christianity (Englisch) Gebundene Ausgabe, Robert M. Grant 1967

[9 ] “Le Jésus des sectes” : Comment le Christ ésotérique devint le Christ des universitaires par Philip Jenkins, CESNUR (Centro Studi sulle Nuove Religioni), founded in Italy 1988

–
December 24, 2017
Pope says Vatican is spritual deaf in Curia address
This is a new message not only, but especially for Catholic Church officials in Rome and Germany. Many of them have long cultivated a lifestyle oriented toward strict dogmas, spiritual void and a career within the church, as despised from the former Pope Benedict XVI. But now that his successor arrives at meetings in an old car, they have seen this as non-fundamental shift. Pope Benedict was alienated, as many Roman Catholics were, by the busy Church bureaucracy. A cozy State Church, living well from concordat, sings along with the entrenched party politicians. It took Pope Francis a while to address “ailments” of the Vatican Curia and the spiritual deaf Western Church. Francis begged this Christmas pardon for the “shortcomings” of senior church leaders, as well as the “several scandals” that had “caused so much harm”. Like Pope Benedict XVI in his famous speech in Freiburg a few years ago, Pope Francis denounced the worldliness of ladder-climbing clerics, those who indulge in hypocritical double lives, and lamented a sense of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” of his clerics. 2014 is a somber year. As you can see, I included Pope Francis’ Twitter timeline, but until today few of his tweets were newsworthy. I am still at odds with his communication style and not sure where he is going. Anyway, the 15 alignments are a long – correct – list, but somewhat not very concise:
1. Feeling immortal, immune or indispensable. “A Curia that doesn’t criticise itself, that doesn’t update itself, that doesn’t seek to improve itself is a sick body.”
2. Working too hard. It is the disease of those who, like Martha in the Gospel, “lose themselves in their work, inevitably neglecting what is better; sitting at Jesus’ feet.” The Pope said that Jesus called on his disciples to “rest a little”, because neglecting necessary rest brings anxiety and stress.
3. Becoming spiritually and mentally hardened. “It’s dangerous to lose that human sensibility that lets you cry with those who are crying, and celebrate those who are joyful.”
4. Planning too much. “Preparing things well is necessary, but don’t fall into the temptation of trying to close or direct the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which is bigger and more generous than any human plan.”
5. Working without co-ordination, like an orchestra that produces noise. “When the foot tells the hand, ‘I don’t need you’ or the hand tells the head ‘I’m in charge.’”
6. Having ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s.’ “We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord … in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.”
7. Being rivals or boastful.“When one’s appearance, the colour of one’s vestments or honorific titles become the primary objective of life.”
8. Suffering from ‘existential schizophrenia.’ “It’s the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill. It’s a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people.”
9. Committing the ‘terrorism of gossip.’ “It’s the sickness of cowardly people who, not having the courage to speak directly, talk behind people’s backs.”
10. Glorifying one’s bosses. “It’s the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honour people who aren’t God.”
11. Being indifferent to others. “When, out of jealousy or cunning, one finds joy in seeing another fall rather than helping him up and encouraging him.”
12. Having a ‘funereal face.’ “In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity. The apostle must be polite, serene, enthusiastic and happy and transmit joy wherever he goes.”
13. Wanting more.“When the apostle tries to fill an existential emptiness in his heart by accumulating material goods, not because he needs them but because he’ll feel more secure.”
14. Forming ‘closed circles’ that seek to be stronger than the whole. “This sickness always starts with good intentions but as time goes by, it enslaves its members by becoming a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body and causes so much bad – scandals – especially to our younger brothers.”
15. Seeking worldly profit and showing off. “It’s the sickness of those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than others.”
Is that really the whole problem?

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Francis, is the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. At the time, when he was a new pope, we thought our prayers were answered – a non-European was elected. A Jesuit who appears spiritual, taking charge, connecting , ascetic, conservative, even holy. His first appearance was breathtaking. He seemed to knows how to run a tight ship as Jesuit. In choosing Francis, 76, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the cardinals seemed to have sent a powerful message that the future of the church lies in the global south, home to the fast growing bulk of the world’s Catholics not in the bickering, secular church of Europe. See Phillip Jenkins: In the long run Christ wins out – the next Christendom. Jenkins argues that a ‘Christian revolution’ is already underway in the developing world, one that our political leaders ignore to the peril of all of us: “We are currently living through one of the transforming moments in the history of religion worldwide. – ” The Christian center of gravity has shifted to Africa, Asia, and Latin America “By 2050, only about 1/5 of the world’s 3 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic Whites.” “The era of Western Christianity has passed within our lifetimes….” “The emerging Christian world will be anchored in the Southern continents.” That is not what I see today. We see persecution and terror.

Pope Francis is a Jesuit, an order which fell in disgrace under Johannes Paul II but were brought back in the folder by Benedict XVI. The famous intellectual and tough missionary order, “gods Marines”. Jesuits, founded 1534, helped Counter-Reformation and have always stood on the side of enlightenment. This is a great continuity from the spiritual pope Johannes Paul II and the outstanding theologian Benedict XVI, who wanted to connect science and Catholicism – but at the same time in Europe to rather have a smaller church than a worldly, opportunistic organisation which runs after the Zeitgeist.Pope Francis was known to be conservative on spiritual issues . He somewhat muddles through abortion, same-sex marriage and supports celibacy. However, according to the National Cathedral Reporter’s John Allen, “he’s no defender of clerical privilege, or insensitive to pastoral realities.” He assailed priests who refused to baptize children born out of wedlock, calling it a form of “rigorous and hypocritical neo-clericalism.” Bergoglio has also displayed sympathy for HIV-AIDS victims — Thera are reports that in 2001, Bergoglio visited a hospice to kiss the feet of a dozen AIDS patients. Bergoglio often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina’s capital. When he considers social outreach to be the essential business of the church, is that not spiritual deaf also?.

Conclusion

He accused fellow church leaders of hypocrisy and forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes. “Jesus teaches us another way: Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit,” Bergoglio told Argentina’s priests once.

He strongly opposed legislation introduced in 2010 by the Argentine Government to allow same-sex marriage, calling it a “real and dire anthropological throwback”. Exact quotes vary, but The Guardian UK quotes Bergoglio as saying of an Argentinian marriage bill:

“Let’s not be naive: this isn’t a simple political fight, it’s an attempt to destroy God’s plan.”

The biographer Rubin obtained an extremely rare interview of Bergoglio for his biography, the The Jesuit. He said this:

“Is Bergoglio a progressive – a liberation theologist even? No. He’s no third-world priest. Does he criticize the International Monetary Fund, and neoliberalism? Yes. Does he spend a great deal of time in the slums? Yes,” Rubin said

.

What is his stand today on the family ? What on capitalism running havov? What on persecution of Christians?

Pope Francis @Pontifex · Dec 18

The Lord put it clearly: you cannot serve two masters. You have to choose between God and money.

Pope Francis @Pontifex · Sep 5

I pray every day for all who are suffering in Iraq.

Pope Francis @Pontifex · Oct 3

Happy families are essential for the Church and for society. #prayforsynod

“Francis rebuilt the church” a quote to St. Francis from Pope Francis. I somewhat still have to see it. Pope Benedict the XVI said: “There is so much noise in the world! May we learn to be silent to listen in our hearts and before God”. Fans of the Philosopher Pope Benedict XVI, saw their influence waning, as much of what had been valuable and important to them is now frowned upon from the Church bureaucracy more openly. On the other hand the so-called reformist camp, a sorry lot of old men, weak in spiritual achievements and virtues, has yet to explain itself. Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, systematically opposed them. Now the remaining liberal priests are only gradually coming out of the woods and the role of Pope Francis is not clear (to me). Benedicts XVI ’s speech to lay Catholics 2011 in Freiburg was frank and to the point:

Allow me to refer here to an aspect of Germany’s particular situation. The Church in Germany is superbly organized. But behind the structures, is there also a corresponding spiritual strength, the strength of faith in a living God? We must honestly admit that we have more than enough by way of structure but not enough by way of Spirit. I would add: the real crisis facing the Church in the western world is a crisis of faith. If we do not find a way of genuinely renewing our faith, all structural reform will remain ineffective. See here for full speech.
December 23, 2014
The wolf in us from an Jungian view: “lupus est homo homini”
Recently I attended a catholic retreat in a Benedictine mountain monastery. The theme was: The wolf in us. We discussed the archetypes and myths of the wolf, a topic I had explored in great length before, their archetypes here and here. The point was raised, that the wolf represents greed, one of the seven deadly sins. What was interesting, however, was at some point the monk, an American Swiss, who can flawlessly yodel, let us howl like wolves. A quite devoted group of catholics from all walk of life became a wolf pack. My experience during this long Whitsun weekend with an intimate and less organisational approach to spirituality is what I want to write about. Because, as I see it, the wolf in us, seen from a Jungian view, is our untamed shadow, but also a great source of energy. This article is so the third in cycle of the archetype of the wolf, a personal defense of the wolf from German romanticism (or if you want from Rousseau’s nobel savage) and includes some of my unsystematic associations. Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves – the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio

animalschagall

The monk told us on the first day the most famous story of St. Francis is when he tamed the wolf that was terrorizing the people of Gubbio. While Francis was staying in that town he learned of a wolf so ravenous that it was not only killing and eating animals, but people, too. The people took up arms and went after it, but those who encountered the wolf were killed. The villagers became afraid to leave the city walls.

Francis took pity on the people and the wolf as well and decided to go out and meet the wolf. He was desperately warned by the people, but he insisted that God would take care of him. A brave friar and several peasants accompanied Francis outside the city gate. But soon the peasants became terrified and said they would go no farther.

Francis and his companion began to walk on. Suddenly the wolf, jaws wide open, charged out of the woods at the couple. Francis made the Sign of the Cross toward the wolf who immediately slowed down and closed its mouth. Then Francis called out to the wolf: “Come to me, Brother Wolf. I wish you no harm.” At that moment the wolf lowered its head and lay down at St. Francis’ feet, meek as a lamb.

St. Francis explained to the wolf that he had been terrorizing the people, killing not only other animals, but humans as well. “Brother Wolf,” said Francis, “I want to make peace between you and the people of Gubbio. They will harm you no more and you must no longer harm them. All past wrongs are to be forgiven.”

The wolf showed its assent by moving its body and nodding its head. Then to the absolute surprise of the gathering crowd, Francis asked the wolf to make a pledge. As St. Francis extended his hand to receive the pledge, so the wolf extended its front paw and placed it into the saint’s hand. Then Francis invited the wolf to follow him into town to make a peace pact with the townspeople. The wolf meekly followed St. Francis.

By the time they got to the town square, everyone was there to witness the miracle. Then he offered the townspeople peace, on behalf of the wolf. The townspeople promised in a loud voice to feed the wolf.

Apollo_Action

Then Francis asked the wolf if he would live in peace under those terms. He bowed his head and twisted his body in a way that convinced everyone he accepted the pact. Then once again the wolf placed its paw in Francis’ hand as a sign of the pact.From that day on the people kept the pact they had made. The wolf lived for two years among the townspeople, going from door to door for food. It hurt no one and no one hurt it. When the wolf finally died of old age, the people of Gubbio were sad.

Owning a Labrador, actually I thought during the session the wolf in me says; Come to me, Brother. My Labrador retrievers never fails to amaze me when he puts his paw in my hand. Which he does at least every morning, when I come down to the basement giving him his two pieces of a treat. Labs are known for their voracious appetites and mine seems always hungry. Apollo, thats his name, will never turn down food except when not feeling well (or one rare exception italian Rucola salad). His the most negative behaviors that need to be curtailed is begging while I cook, making long faces and pleading eyes. But is he or the wolf a symbol of greed? I think not. More a symbol of bonding. Both have developed the emotional need to constantly interact with the other members of the “pack”.

The (human) wolf pack

Wolfsklamm, gorge in Tyrol Alps in Karwendel

Most of us in the group of 15 knew the open-minded monk (who is priest and psychoanalyst) and each other, from past exercitation – but wolf howling created an extra physical and psychological experience of belonging and trust. As did two days of long mountain hikes, where we held a proper holy masses, one time on a wide mountain meadow and on the next day in three parts in two different churches and one capella. Again the experience was quite unique. Like wolves we roamed “our territory” with a resident monk, who explained us that most of this Tirol territory with its 20 high mountains still has been owned by the monastery in which we stayed. That opened many doors in this countryside area.

waterfallpfinsten

We hiked up a waterfall which carved out a deep canyon in limestone (called wolf gorge / Wolfsklamm). The Wolfsklamm in Karwendel impressed the nature lover with thundering waterfalls, emerald green pools and a rising spray creating rainbows. The strong spring floods, the roar of the stream lead up to the monastery of St. George mountain pilgrimage. We walked further in the nature reserve Karwendel. Just before reaching the Stall Alm, we reached a wide alpine meadow for the open air mass. The monastery of St. George – St. Georgenberg – was a mountain hermitage, which was first mentioned in 950 for the first time in writing. St. George Berg, is the oldest place of pilgrimage throughout the Tyrol. The monastery still exists, it is a place of power and offers personal retreats. We stayed this year down in the large monastery in Fiecht.

While I walked up against the current of the water, I could not help but seeing in the water flow a symbol of going back in (my life) time. I saw blocks and trees in the rapid water, going up river water the water was calm. You never now what the future holds for oneself down the river. I imagined a wolf pacing up the stones. Time is rapid water.
There is eternal timeless truth within our universe which expands since 13.8 Billion years. To the Hindus this is just on of many Shiva’s dreams, a representation of the creation of the universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle – a reminder that the universe now newly created… will billion of years from now will be utterly destroyed or vanish. Creation. Destruction. But the the deep canyon also reflects the eternal truth and overall time. At least within the realm of one of Shiva’s dreams.

chapellpfingsten

Now back to the real wolves an wolfs howl. The groups conclusion was, that wolves and people did not get along well because their social behaviors is so similar. To find the wolf in us we imitated how it would be like wolves. That means, observing like they walk and how they use several forms of verbal communication, including high-pitched-barks, yips, whines, whimpers, and howls. Like my Labrador dog also wolves whine and whimper as indication of either physical or emotional discomfort or if they are hungry. A yip might be heard when a Wolf is suddenly frightened or hurt during play or ritual combat. Barks or woofs are generally short and warn against the approach of intruders or to attract the attention of another Wolf within visual range. Of all the sounds, none are as famous, haunting, or beautiful (and frightening) as a Wolf’s howl. Wolves howl also alone or together for a variety of reasons. To notify other Wolves of their whereabouts; such as when they wish to attract a mate, rally the pack together for the hunt, when distressed, during or after playing and other social interactions, and often just for the fun of it.

I have to admit it was fun to howl in a group, and actually the famous Bavarian or Tirol yodel may be a reminiscences of the lone howling (don’t try that in an urban environment):
- Find a wide open space – opportune locations include fields, meadows, rolling hills, and/or the privacy of your own (large) backyard.
- As the power rises within you, gather strength from your diaphragm and inhale deeply.
- Exhale with force and feeling as you make an oval shape with your mouth.
- During exhalation, let out a piercing and mournful cry,(also known as a “howl”) keeping your mouth in an oval shape
- Let the howl resonate for seconds, gradually reducing inflection and fading out.
- You can tell what a howl means by its pitch and strength. The longer the lasting, the more strength of the emotion. The higher the pitch, the happier the feeling. Quieter sounds mean more bland of an emotion.
- Repeat if desired, until all frustration is let loose. Once howling has ceased, reflect on your wolf experience,It is better to do this with friends if your personality is like a “pack wolf” but if you’re a lone wolf..try doing it yourself. One howl a day keeps the doctor away.
Howling sessions among multiple Wolves generally begin as a series of short yaps, then howls that last from less than a second to longer than ten seconds. During the howl the voice may maintain a single tonal quality or cascade from high down to low and then back up to high. Group howls can take on a truly frenzied quality, and two or three howling Wolves can sound like a dozen or more. Larger Wolves tend to have a lower sounding howl. A Wolf’s howl can be heard for up to ten miles under optimal conditions. Wolves can howl while standing, sitting, or laying down. Wolves do not howl at the moon as so many people like to romanticize, studies have shown no correlation to (Wer-)Wolves howling and lunar phase; Wolves just love to howl, period.

Charismatic wolves

pentecostal

Rousseau, said also once, the world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless, which I would translate in C.G.Jung’s claim, the religion is out of scope of the temporal world but the desire for it is in every men. By chance I talked one time with the monks about the new pope Francis I and the pentecostal movement. The question was what can we use as catholics from “charismatic techniques” learning from the competition. I got mixed responses. A pragmatic response was, they spread the gospel, that is good. But not following liturgy literally raises also eyebrows. Once during dinner the head of the monastery greeted us and when we discussed our “three church mass” asked us quite ironically, he sure hopes we had celebrated catholic. It occurred to me then that our weekend experience was quite closer to the bible than to conservative church rituals and in a way proper catholic with some little charismatic sprinkles very appropriate to the special liturgy of Whitsun. We sung to the guitar every night after dinner and during the retreat sessions. The world of spirituality is boundless indeed.

I’m not very familiar with the pentecostal churches (outpacing in Africa and South America any other religion) but I have written a bit about them consider them historically interesting. Some have very charismatic leaders where everyone is memorised by their voice. The music, speaking in tongues etc puts people into a trance-like state where they are open to suggestion. Any person should know, who plays music to evoke the mood, to evoke emotion, to enable free thinking. Are they the wolves in sheep clothes, or allies? There seemed to be a psychological connection between our howling in the group and the pentecostal trance – at least this was a Whitsun weekend. I know it is a clumsy, if not even an offending comparison, but I am suspicious of group experiences. Furthermorehowling with wolves is a not well-meaning proverb.

Paul warned us that grievous wolves in sheep’s clothing would come into the Church. We know that in the history of the Church many wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing have devoured the flock. Today in our time there are many breeds of wolves in sheep’s clothing work in temporal institutions and religious organizations churches and ideologies dressed up as religions that are decimating the flock like never before. But is it? The writer and respected professor of history and religious studies Philip Jenkins who is also the author of “The Lost History of Christianity argues that the rapid growth of Christianity around the world (both within and alongside existing traditions) will literally reshape the world, with possible religious and geopolitic conflicts. Jenkins observes that especially Pentecostalism, mainly a protestant renewal movement within Christianity (German: Pfingstler, Pfingstkirche, Pfingstbewegung), is steadily winning millions of follower in Latin America, South America, Africa, India, Malaysia, China, and Eastern Europe, including Russia. There is even a Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which pope emeritus Benedict XVI once praised highlighting its positive contribution. According to the U.S. urban specialist Mike Davis “Pentecostalism is the largest self-organized movement of urban poor in the world”. Are they a wolf’s pack in a good sense to defend persecution, or wolves in sheep clothes? Can learn Christians from wolves – giving the bad rap they have within the bible? I think, yes we can.

The perils for Christians today are real. In the very monastery a young christian refuge from South Sudan had one time dinner with us on Sunday. He told us his story. His whole family and all relatives had been killed. He was assaulted as kid from the militias with machetes and survived just because he protected his head with his hand stopping the machete with his wrist. This cost him half of his hand and he was left for dead in a pool of blood. His journey went then on through Tchad, Libia often helped by Christians and lastly via a cargo ship to Europe. I saw this boys smile and his hand, who lives now with kids mainly from Afghanistan in a sort of foster home until he is 18. I believe his story. Persecution and poverty of which so much are made in the New Testament literature is very much the context of the majority of today’s southern Christians (not to mention those who await their moment a half-century hence). However, for whatever reason, Western investment in missions has been cut back dramatically at just the point it is most desperately needed, at the peak of the current surge in Christian numbers from self-centered European clergy. According to Philip Jenkins: “For the average Western audience, New Testament passages about standing firm in the face of pagan persecution have little immediate relevance…. “Millions of Christians around the world do in fact live in constant danger of persecution or forced conversion, from either governments or local vigilantes.”

When he says, “Looking at Christianity as a planetary phenomenon, not merely a Western one, makes it impossible to read the New Testament in quite the same way ever again”, he has a particular strong point pointing out the Book of Revelation. and that nevertheless, “Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and persecuted, while it atrophies among the rich and secure.” We could learn from the wolves breathtaking ability to bundle strength in a pack.

Conclusion

wolfhowling

„lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit.“ The phrase is sometimes translated as “man is man’s wolf” or “man is a wolf to his fellow man.” It is widely referenced when discussing the horrors of which humans are capable. But that Man to me is an errant Wolf not the Wolf an errant Man and I dislike Hobbes’s observation, claiming that all human are always inherently selfish.

Yes, there have never been so many human wolves in sheep’s clothing attacking from so many directions. With mass media the grievous wolves in sheep’s clothing have access to many sheep and they are fleecing the flock like never before in history. Some prosperity confession and temporal (taxing) powers teach sheep that coming to the Great Shepherd is to partake in the abundant life that will be provided for them while they are still on the hoof. To become a partner in this abundant lifestyle sheep just need to send them a hundred pounds of wool each month (or a one time annual gift of a thousand pounds). In return, these wolves will send the sheep a collector item bell to wear around their neck to remind them how much they enjoyed being fleeced. But are they wolves?

I agree with the idea being that Greed is a powerful, vicious force and a deadly sin. It is shameless in what it wants and how it takes it. Greed, bites down hard and shakes and tears into things, it is untamed and straightforward and devours all it can. While a greedy person may come off as wolfish, the actual feeling that one gets while in the grip of being greedy is unlike a wolf on the hunt. Pigs are better used to describe the so-called and admired star investors who shape our world today. Wolves in traditional symbolic meanings may differ from how an actual wolf behaves. Even the wolf of Gubbio was just hungry. I came to the conclusion after this retreat we were howling after what we lost, the connection to an untamed dangerous nature and the dream of the nobel savage.

Freedom

Many miles mankind went
To reach this point
They went to seek what they lost
What they lost before time
Before the first rays of light
When men settled down more domesticated than their dogs

Despair

Men, they the warriors they once were

They dedicated their existence to explore
To control
And to follow

Eternity and enlightenment

Men, they the thinkers they were
ended up trivialized

In a never-ending maze of

Confusion

Wolves so many lifetimes before
Had reached those points
Made the right decisions

And so many lifetimes to go

Greed and darkness

But Men still see only pieces of the
Complete puzzle

Emptiness
They – the wolves they were
Are now a never-ending maze of emptiness and

Greediness
The wolf their symbol for this major sin.
Really? The Dow Jones is up.
But the lone wolf still howls.

And avoids men.

2001-who is evil wolf or men

Back in Munich, during a visit of the newly opened Lenbach House, I came across a of this exuberant painting by the German painter Franz Marc (1880-1916.) Marc’s paintings of animals, mostly horses, had fluidity, grace and deep emotion. In 1911, Franz Marc, along with August Macke and Wassily Kandinsky, founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). They were a diverse group stylistically, but they held common beliefs in the spiritual nature of art, the link between visual art and music and the symbolic use of color to depict emotion. Sadly, Marc was killed by a shell splinter to the head in the Battle of Verdun in his twenties where people killed each other in the millions.
May 27, 2013